Sir Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize 2013 – Laura Corbin

Having not long started my first post-doctoral research position since completing my PhD, news that my supervisor, Professor John Woolliams, wanted to nominate me for the Sir Kenneth Mather Prize was a great boost to my confidence.  My PhD was titled ‘The application of genomic technologies to the horse’.  I explored the structure of the equine genome using what was at that time a newly developed 50,000 SNP array.  I also considered the utility of the SNP array both in identifying genetic variants associated with complex disease and in predicting risk of disease, using osteochondrosis in Thoroughbred horses as an example.  I am currently a post-doctoral researcher in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol.  Here I am working on the development of a framework for Recall By Genotype (RBG) studies, an approach that can be applied to a wide range of traits and diseases in order to investigate the causal pathways through which associated genotypic variants act.
I am extremely grateful to the Genetics Society not only for this prize, but also for funding I have received from them in support of my research both during my PhD and more recently.